Jul 30, 2014

At the request of the United Nations Secretary-General's Climate Change Support Team (CCST), the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) is conducting an open process to obtain nominations for 4 civil society speakers and 34 additional civil society attendees for the Secretary-General's 2014 Climate Summit, which will take place on 23 September at UN Headquarters in New York. The roles for these representatives are outlined in Section A below. 18 of the 38 representatives will receive travel funding from the Executive Office of the Secretary-General.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited Heads of State and Government along with leaders from business, finance, and civil society to the Climate Summit to catalyze ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen climate resilience, and to mobilize political will toward achieving an ambitious, legally binding international climate change agreement by 2015. Complete information about the Climate Summit is available here.

Please read this entire email if you will participate in this process, as it has a few steps and specific requirements.

Kindly note: this nomination process is not open to representatives of the private sector. Participation of the private sector in the Climate Summit is facilitated by the UN Global Compact and the CCST.

A. Submit nominations for the following 4 civil society speaking roles and 34 additional attendees for the Climate Summit

1. The following 18 civil society roles in the Climate Summit will receive travel funding from the Executive Office of the Secretary General. All candidates must be representatives of civil society organizations.

a) One speaker in the Opening of the 2014 Climate Summit on behalf of civil society at large

Criteria: For this speaking role, the CCST is seeking a young woman (under the age of 30) from a developing country. Candidates must have a proven track record of effective advocacy or implementation of community based solutions for climate change mitigation or adaptation, as well as proven strong communication and public speaking skills. This speaker will collaborate with a diverse civil society Selection and Drafting Committee for the development of this statement (see Section C below).

b) Three panellists for the Thematic Debate "Voices from the Climate Frontlines" (organized by UNICEF and UN Women)

Criteria: Candidates must be able to proficiently address the questions in the concept note for this Thematic Debate. At least one of these panelist roles will be given to an Indigenous person, and at least one will be given to a person under the age of 30. Two panellists will be from a developing country, and one from a developed country.

c) 14 Summit Attendees

Criteria: Candidates must have a proven track record of effective advocacy or implementation of community based solutions for climate change mitigation or adaptation. These attendees will not have speaking roles in the Summit programme.

2. An additional 20 civil society representatives will be invited to attend the Summit through this nomination process without offer of travel funding support. These representatives will not have speaking roles in the Summit programme.

All nominations will automatically load into a google doc spreadsheet, published here.

Before submitting a nominee, please confirm the nominee:

is a representative of a civil society organization, and officially authorized by their organization/network to speak on the organization/network's behalf.

has a proven track record of effective advocacy or implementation of community based solutions for climate change mitigation or adaptation.

has excellent competency with climate change issues, experience with presenting climate change issues in public fora, and demonstrated ability to engage constructively with a variety of stakeholders.

for a speaking role: is a compelling public speaker (the online nomination form requests links to writing samples or remarks delivered at speaking engagements).

is available to be at UN Headquarters in NY at 8:30am on 23 September, and for travel if necessary. The nominee must have a US visa, or be able to obtain one within 3 weeks, for travel to the US.

Please note that the Climate Summit also involves Action Area Sessions, and leaders of civil society, non-governmental organizations and indigenous peoples that are actively contributing to announcements for those Sessions have already received invitations to the Summit via another process. Anyone receiving an invitation for an Action Area Session will not be considered for opportunities provided via this process to attend the Summit. Please check with potential nominees to see if they have received an invitation to an Action Area Session before submitting them to this process. The list of attendees for the Action Area Sessions will be provided to the civil society Selection and Drafting Committee for this process.

C. Apply for the civil society Selection and Drafting Committee

A civil society Selection and Drafting Committee will be facilitated by UN-NGLS to evaluate all nominees and determine a short-list of 76 candidates for the roles outlined above in Section A.

36 candidates will be submitted to the Secretary-General's CCST for the 18 funded roles; and

40 candidates will be submitted to the Secretary-General's CCST for the 20 unfunded attendees.

The final selection of speakers will be made by the Secretary-General's CCST, with input by UNICEF / UN Women for the roles in the Thematic Session "Voices from the Climate Frontlines," ensuring regional, gender and age balance, and diversity of expertise.

The civil society Selection and Drafting Committee will also serve to collaborate on the drafting of the statement to be delivered by the civil society speaker selected for the Opening of the Summit, to enable a diversity of constituencies to contribute perspectives to these remarks.

To learn more about the Selection and Drafting Committee, and to apply to be a member, please clickhere.

Please note that members of the Selection and Drafting Committee cannot be considered for the civil society roles in the Climate Summit to be filled through this process.

The Secretary-General's CCST will provide an invitation letter for the selected civil society speakers and attendees. These participants will be responsible for obtaining their visas for travel. Please confirm with candidates you are considering for nominations that the US Embassy/consulate in their home country will be able to issue a visa for travel to the US within 3 weeks.

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